The time will come when architects and engineers will be summoned to my house to shore up the floor beneath my Keith Jarrett collection. Not yet though. A favorite items is my sealed copy of Bop-Be, a session covering the music of Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman and Alec Wilder.Read More

The sophomore release from the best cartoon-band in the world found them skirting that dreaded sophomore-slump, for the most part. Out is Dan the Automator, in is Grey Album conspirator Danger Mouse, and the difference is notable in the tone of the album. Where the self-titled release was a littleRead More

Ryan Adams followed up a fantastic 2007 Easy Tiger album with Follow the Lights — a seven-song EP featuring two brand-new songs seen on ABC television show “October Road.” The rest were live-in-studio alternate versions of previously recorded songs, aside from his cover of Alice in Chains’ “Down In ARead More

I do remember all those wild Funkadelic, Parliament and Rick James records being advertised in Creem magazeen back in the day. Never bought any at the time. Years later I got a copy of Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove and realized that I’d made a terrible mistake. All thoseRead More

Don’t even bother: it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a weird band name they use because it sounds funny. And that, in itself, should tell you something about this band: They’re French and they have this kind of sense of humor. Add in the fact that guitarist Christophe Godin playsRead More

The Steve Miller Band was huge when I was a kid. Everybody owned Book of Dreams and Fly Like An Eagle. That’s all I ever owned. So, it’s been kinda fun to dig into a famous artist’s back catalog. Check out the liner dedication: “This album is dedicated to theRead More

The sweeping, cinematic quality of Alex Lopez’s new We Can Take This Boat makes perfect sense, really. After all, the saxophonist/composer’s debut, due on Nov. 22, follows earlier work on a series of independent films in New York City. An all-original effort, Lopez makes good on a series of namedRead More

Machine Mass Trio has constructed a mesmerizing, moving carpet of boisterous sax, knifing guitars and boiling rhythms on the electronics-laden As Real As Thinking. There is always, always something happening here, as MMT skitters with determined focus between the melodic, the moody and (to great effect) the outside. Much ofRead More

For Dream Theater, album No. 8 was their fourth with a lineup including Jordan Rudess on keyboards (the keyboard slot being the weak seat in the band). The band apparently listened to fan’s comments about the last two extremely hectic, overly chaotic albums and scaled back their penchant for excessive,Read More

A huge find. Drummer Motian employed two saxes (Joe Lovano, Jim Pepper), bassist Ed Schuller and Bill Frisell (before he was really Bill Frisell, if ya know what I mean). OK, that’s not quite right about Frisell. He does use a volume pedal to get that attackless sound. But there’sRead More